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Savage 110 Tactical Desert in 6mm Creedmoor

I hadn't bought anything in a few months so I was getting itchy. I ordered the above-mentioned rifle and it came today. Looks nice. Has the Accu-stock, Accu-fit, Accu-trigger, 20 MOA EGW rail, 7.5 twist. I ordered 5 boxes of the Federal Premium ammo loaded with 105 Bergers from Midway at $25 per box with free shipping. I couldn't buy brass and bullets and load them for that. It will give me 100 brass to play with and I'll get dies next year. I also have a bunch of 108 Bergers to try. I'll mount a 10-40X Osprey to start. I'm thinking egg shoots, marble shoots, chuck shoots and maybe real chucks.

Anybody play with one of these yet? Any experiences with the caliber in another platform?

Thanks, you're right. Tons of information on the caliber. Not much yet on the model 110 Desert Tactical.

I had it apart today to adjust the trigger. The book says it will go below 1 pound, but mine was adjusted all the way down and it's right at 2 lbs 1 ounce. The only way to get it lower would be to replace the spring, but it breaks so good I'll probably not bother.

The Accu-stock bedding block looks to be very well machined. Fit is precise. You have to be careful when removing the stock because there's a little bushing for the rear guard screw that can easily fall out.

I'll probably order a Mag-pul 5 round magazine because the 10 rounder is too darn obtrusive.

The bore scope shows that the barrel is decent. You can see faint machine marks, but they're not pronounced. The chamber, leade and crown are good.

Finally shot it

I took it to the range yesterday. Usually I can bore sight at a 100 yard target and get within 6 inches on the first shot. Not this time. Finally figured out it was hitting to the left of my target backer. I Moved the cross hairs to the hole but still was way off. Finally got it close. Moved out to 200 meters and tried to get it to hit on POA. Scope adjustments were not tracking well at all. Finally called it good and shot a 5 shot group. Horrible! 4 inches wide and 2 inches high. I had just shot a .838 inch 5 shot group with a Savage model 12 22-250 off the very same rest.

I will check the bedding and try a different scope. It's gotta be the scope because I can't imagine a Savage shooting that bad out of the box. I'm using Federal Gold Medal Match ammo with Berger 105 hybrids. The scope is an Osprey that's never been on anything but a .22 long rifle.

Checked out the bedding today. All seems perfect. Picatinny rail is screwed down solid. Bore and crown are good. No reason for fliers other than the scope. I will mount up another one and try it Friday.

Mounted up a Bushnell Engage 6-24x50. Nice scope. Sighted in a tad over 1 inch high on my home range at 80 yards. Will try at 200 meters Saturday with the Fed Gold Medal Match with the 105 hybrids. I hope to load up some 108 Bergers if my dies come. I have 20 empty cases now.

Did some more testing after a benchrest shoot at St. J on Saturday. Wind was variable from the north/northeast at zero to 5 mph or so. I wasn't paying much attention to flags. Shooting at 200 yards, I shot a fouling shot with the Federal Gold Medal Match with 105 Berger hybrids, which was low left, and then 5 more. The next four clustered into .774 inch in the upper left before the last one jumped a couple of inches to the right. I then shot two groups of 5 with 108 Bergers behind 41.5 grains H4350 with 210M primers. Results were inconclusive because I discovered I was having issues with the forend stop on the rest being too high and perhaps touching the barrel, and me not consistently returning to it anyhow. The next group was with 107 match kings with the same powder charge and primer and that went in 1.436 for 5 shots, mostly horizontal . The last group opened up to about 2 inches. I never touched the scope at all during this session.

I had loaded all handloads with Hornady Match Grade dies with the bushing sizing die and micrometer seater. I like these dies. At 80 bucks a set they are a bargain. I used a .267 bushing with the factory Federal cases. Redding busings fit just fine.

I am sure groups will tighten a lot when I play with powder, primers, seating depth etc. I had pretty much winged it on the seating depth because I had forgotten to order a modified case for my Lock n Load tool.

My hope was to find a factory rifle and factory load that would win one of our 200 yard egg shoots and not be a $2200 Cooper. I still think that is possible if I get my rest issues under control.